Cougar Town

Did You Know?

• ABC officially gave the series a full season pickup on October 8, 2009, after airing only 3 episodes.
• On May 8, 2012, ABC canceled the series after three seasons; two days later, TBS picked it up for a fourth season.
• Season 3 was originally slated to premiere in November 2011 but was delayed to February 14, 2012 because of ABC's promotion of the ill-fated Man Up!.
• Courteney Cox received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy at the 67th Golden Globes.
• Jules names her giant wine glasses; the order includes Big Joe, Big Carl, Big Kimo, Big Lou, Big Tippi, Big Sue, and Big Chuck.

Cast and characters

Courteney Cox plays Jules Cobb, a single mom who recently got divorced and is figuring out how to date and get older. She was married to Bobby for most of her twenties and thirties while raising their son Travis. Since she had been out of the dating scene for a while, she first tries dating younger guys, which gets her called a "cougar," but the show quickly moves on as she starts going for men closer to her age. Near the end of season one, she starts seeing her divorced neighbor Grayson, and they get married in season three. Jules lives in Gulfhaven, Florida, works as a real estate agent, and a close-up of her driver's license in season two shows her full first name is Julia and her birthday is November 15, 1968. She's outgoing, upbeat, and proudly anti-intellectual, with a love for wine that she drinks from huge glasses she names, like Big Joe, Big Carl, and Big Lou. When one breaks, she holds a mock funeral but quickly gets a replacement. Her widower father Chick visits often. Christa Miller plays Ellie Torres, Jules's sharp-tongued neighbor and best friend. Ellie used to be a corporate lawyer but is now a stay-at-home mom, and she's the brainiest of the group. She's married to Andy Torres, and they have a son named Stan. Ellie is sarcastic and enjoys teasing Laurie, Bobby, Grayson, and Travis, but she's fiercely loyal underneath her tough shell. She's not a natural mother and insists on a nanny even though she stays home. In season six, she goes back to corporate law after getting bored and realizing Andy wants to be a stay-at-home dad.

Production

Cougar Town was created by Bill Lawrence and Kevin Biegel. After the cancellation of Dirt, Courteney Cox wanted to return to television comedy. Lawrence, known for creating Scrubs and Spin City, was approached by Cox about working together. He arranged a tryout for Cox by guest-starring her in the first three episodes of Scrubs' eighth season. Lawrence and Biegel, who had worked together on Scrubs, developed the concept of a 40-year-old newly single woman, drawing inspiration from Lawrence's wife, actress Christa Miller, who also stars as Ellie. Miller had previously worked with Cox during the Scrubs tryout. Lawrence told Cox the show could be "high risk, high reward," and she agreed. Before pitching to ABC, the show was considered under titles including 40 and Single and The Courteney Cox Show, but was eventually named Cougar Town because Lawrence felt the title was "noisy" and would attract attention. He acknowledged the risk that the title might deter viewers, noting that the word "cougar" is not used in the show except as the high school mascot. ABC asked for a pilot by the end of January 2009. Lawrence and Biegel wrote the script, with Lawrence directing. The character of Ellie was created for Christa Miller, who felt the character started off "gleefully" and reported that Lawrence would write down little things she said.

Connection to Scrubs

The recurring character Ted Buckland from Scrubs, played by Sam Lloyd, appears as a guest star in three episodes of Cougar Town, along with his band The Worthless Peons. The season 3 finale "A One Story Town" features several Scrubs actors: Sam Lloyd and his band The Blanks, Sarah Chalke, Robert Maschio, and an uncredited cameo by Zach Braff. Guest stars from Scrubs appearing on Cougar Town include Zach Braff, Robert Maschio, Sam Lloyd, Scott Foley, Nicole Sullivan, Windell Middlebrooks, and Shaughn Buchholz.

Reception

In the United States, the audience dropped from 11 million to 6 million over the first season. In Australia, the audience fell from 1.3 million to 1 million in one week after the chief executive of the Seven Network described it as a "shit show" that could still draw large audiences through promotion. In the United Kingdom, the first season aired on LIVING in double-bills on Tuesday nights at 9pm, premiering on March 30, 2010, with 802,000 viewers and concluding on June 15, 2010, with a series low of 593,000 viewers. The entire season was the most-watched show on LIVING, averaging 769,000 viewers. The series premiered on September 23, 2009, in the Wednesday 9:30 pm timeslot between Modern Family and Eastwick, drawing 11.4 million viewers and winning its timeslot. The second episode scored 9.14 million viewers, a drop of 2.14 million from the pilot.